About The Bat Cave

Thursday, February 11, 2010

So Wendy, Whatcha Up To?

What I've been up to is essentially a blogging slump. Here's the thing, you can't blog as long as I have and not come down with the occasional case of Blogging Ennui. Look, it happens. My solution to this little problem has always been "suck it up and move forward Wendy." And that's what I do. The result generally means blog posts that don't light the world on fire - but hey, that's not really why I blog. So it's all good, right?

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For those of you who have been reading the Bat Cave solely from a feed reader, you've probably missed the big splashy banner on my side bar promoting All Romance Ebooks28 Days Of Heart campaign. As part of the fun they've interviewed several bloggers around Romance Bloglandia, including yours truly. You can find them here, and to read my interview you'll need to scroll down to the February 11 entry (you'll see my happy lil' avatar).

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I've been busy with work/career stuff lately. In a moment of insanity, I've agreed to do two presentations on the romance genre on the same day. D-Day is February 24, which means I'm trying to get my act together. First up will be a presentation on all things Harlequin to some of the library staff. Think of it as Harlequin For Dummies and you'll get a sense of what I'll be rambling on about. Also, it's a chance for me to educate them on category romance. As a general rule, while there are romance-hatin' librarians out there (seriously, save me from The Stupid), most of the time it's just a matter of librarians "not having a clue." They're not mean-spirited, they have nothing against the genre, they just need to be educated - for lack of a better word.

In my experience, while librarians are getting a bit better on identifying and appreciating the variety in the genre, category romance is still a big mystery. They think it's all Harlequin Presents. Which isn't really shocking since I've run up against more than my fair share of romance readers who think this. Yes, Harlequin Presents sells a butt-load of books. They're insanely popular. But they aren't the only books Harlequin offers. Hell, Harlequin actually publishes other stuff besides romance novels. Can't wait to break that bit of news to them.

The second presentation will be a genre talk at one of our smaller branches. Basically a run-down on all the different "types" of stories you can find within the romance genre. I honestly have no clue how this one is going to go at all. I'm at the stage where I'm hoping at least one warm body shows up. Whether or not I end up talking to an empty room, I still need to prepare some handouts and plan on bringing books for show and tell.

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I've got several things in the works, mostly involving my professional life, that will keep me busy and likely have me panicking in the coming months. All of these are projects I'm really excited about, but they'll require some planning, and some work on my part to not sound like an idiot. Here's the trick to public speaking - speak on a topic you're really confident about. It's amazing how easy the whole thing becomes when you know the subject matter like the back of your hand. That said, there's always that chirpy little voice in the back of my brain telling me, "Don't make an ass of yourself Wendy."

Trust me, a tall order most days.

Certainly as word starts getting out publicly on all these "projects" - I'll be blogging about them. Whether anybody wants to read about them or not. Ha!

9 comments:

Have I ever mentioned that I basically hate blogging (the daily diary concept) and wonder how I ended up with a blog in the first place? Other days, I wake up and realize I can just have whatever fun I want to have. It evens out. ;-)

Bev: If you dig deep into the Bat Cave archives, that's basically what this blog was early on - more diary-like. Eventually it evolved into the mess you see today! LOL

TM: I am busy right now, but mostly I've just got the blahs.

Blanche: That's my problem. I'm just not sure what, if anything, I have to say right now. Watch, next week I'll be full of interesting ideas!

Alie: The Harlequin presentation is for library staff. The romance intro presentation is for the public. It requires a bit of improv, since I'm never sure who, if anyone, is going to show up. If it's total romance n00bs, it'll be Romance Novels For Dummies. If it's people who already read and "know" the genre? I imagine we'll spend a lot of time talking about specific books and authors :)